Managing Technical People

This book contains best-selling author Watts Humphrey's practical insights on how to lead technical professionals. In previous books, Humphrey established process as a key factor in successful software development. His advice on how companies and individuals could improve their software process has since been widely adopted. In this new book, he demonstrates the overriding importance of people to the success of any software project. He focuses particularly on the critical role of innovative people, and gives concrete advice on how to identify, motivate, and organize these people into highly productive teams.

Drawing on extensive experience as IBM's senior software-development executive, and expanding on an earlier work, Managing Innovation, Humphrey presents here proven leadership practices and management techniques that can work in any organization. Given the software industry's dependence on creative human resources, managers will welcome his sound advice on the special challenges encountered in leading technical professionals, and on specific steps managers can take to encourage greater innovation while attaining yet higher levels of efficiency and quality.

• Part 1: The Manager as Leader
  1. Technical Leadership
     • The Leader's Goals
     • The Leader's Conviction
     • Leaders and Their Followers
     • Transformational Leadership
     • Transactional Leadership
     • Leading from Below
     • The Leader's Vision
     • Leading Technical Professionals
     • Notes
  2. The Commitment Ethic
     • The Elements of Commitment
     • Making Responsible Commitments
     • Commitments or Crusades?
     • Overcommitment
     • Managing Commitments
     • Changing Commitments
     • Doing a Thorough Job
     • Building the Commitment Ethic
     • Commitment Ownership
     • Notes
  3. The Importance of Professionalism
     • The Elements of Professionalism
     • Reinventing the Wheel
     • The Benefits of Awareness
     • Managing Awareness
     • Knowledge: Only the Beginning
     • Doing the Job the Right Way
     • The Discipline of Visibility
     • The Hard Work of Visibility
     • Pride of Authorship
     • The Benefits of Visibility
     • Professionalism and Performance
     • The Manager's Role in Professionalism
     • Notes
  4. Respect for the Individual
     • The Standard of Respect
     • The Open Door Policy
     • Peer Review Programs
     • Establishing a Respectful Environment
     • Notes
• Part 2: Managing Technical and Professional People
  5. The Goals of Engineers and Scientists
     • Work Assignment
     • Hierarchy of Needs
     • Locals versus Cosmopolitans
     • The Need for Influence
     • Notes
  6. The Changing Professional Career
     • Evolving Professional Goals
     • Age and Creativity
     • Age and Performance
     • Age and Motivation
     • Burnout
     • The Management-Employee Partnership
     • Career Risk and Age
     • Managing Older Professionals
     • Notes
  7. Motivating Technical and Professional People
     • The Power of Motivation
     • Motivation and Technical Competence
     • The Evolution of Management
     • Building Task Maturity
     • Building Relationship Maturity
     • Building Motivation
     • Motivating Technical Professionals
     • The Manager's Style
     • Notes
  8. Professional Discipline
     • The Need for Discipline
     • Examples of Disciplined Behavior
     • Intellectual Discipline
     • The Importance of Discipline
     • The Personal Software Process
     • The Manager's Role in Professional Discipline
     • More Guidelines for Managers
     • Notes
• Part 3: The Identification and Development of Talented People
  9. Identifying Talented Professionals
     • The Importance of Talent
     • The Availability of Talent
     • Characteristics of Technically Talented People
     • Identifying Managerial Talent
     • The Tamed Rebel
     • Recognizing Talent
     • The Assessment Center
     • Notes
  10. Developing Technical Talent
      • Professional Development
      • Career Moves
      • Technical Development Needs
      • Continuing Management Contact
      • Career Consulting
      • Steps in Technical Development
      • Notes
  11. Developing Managerial Talent
      • Management Development Objectives
      • Starting the Development Process
      • The Executive Personality
      • Alternating Assignments
      • The Product Development Executive
      • The Manufacturing Executive
      • The Development Plan
      • Temoporary Assignments
      • Management Development Reviews
      • Supporting Management Development
      • Development Considerations
      • The Professional Development Bureaucracy
      • Notes
• Part 4: Innovation
  12. The Importance of Innovation
      • Industrial Innovation
      • The Risk of Failure
      • Reverse Engineering
      • Notes
  13. The Innovators
      • New Ideas
      • The Nature of Creativity
      • Imagination and Nerve
      • The Champion
      • The Sponsor
      • Notes
• Part 5: Innovative Teams
  14. Team Structure
      • Concepts of Team Structure
      • Teamwork
      • Team Creativity
      • Team Support
      • Basic Team Structures
      • Structural Conflicts
      • Group Ethics
      • Group Behavior
      • Notes
  15. Managing Innovative Teams
      • The Needs of Creative Teams
      • Signing Up
      • The Team Leader's Style
      • Team Dynamics
      • A Software Development Example
      • The Manager's Responsibility
      • The Team's Personal Needs
      • Political versus Technical Solutions
      • Team Synergism
      • Crystallizing the Team
      • Communication
      • A Technical Proposal Team
      • Managing Team Conflict
      • Intergroup Conflicts
      • Notes
  16. The Innovative Team Environment
      • The Skunk Works
      • Financial Justification
      • Removing Inhibitors to Innovation
      • Not Invented Here
      • Maintaining an Innovative Environment
      • Notes
  17. Rewards and Recognition
      • Award Programs
      • Recognition Programs
      • An Example Award Plan
      • Industry Award Plans
      • Award Guidelines
      • Incentive Plans
      • A Caution on Recognition Programs
      • Notes
  18. The Management Team
      • Contention Management
      • The IBM Personal Computer
      • The PC Junior
      • Business Principles and Strategies
      • Managing the Contention System
      • Management Roles
      • Team Cooperation
      • A Decision a Minute
      • Management Scope
      • Management Perspective
      • Transparent Management
      • Building the Management Team
      • Notes
• Part 6: The Organization
  19. Integration and Disintegration
      • Project Management
      • Support Problems
      • The Element of Structure
      • Matrix Structures
      • Specialist Departments
      • Defining Support
      • Project Integration
      • The Integrator's Role
      • The IBM PS System
      • Managing Integration
      • Integration Responsibility
      • Structural Paralysis
      • Notes
  20. Managing Size
      • The Problems of Size
      • Indirect Communication
      • Span of Control
      • Indirect Management
      • Management Communication
      • Indirect Leadership
      • Leadership Priorities
      • Notes
  21. Power and Politics
      • The Nature of Power
      • How Power Affects the User
      • Authority
      • Blind Obedience
      • The Use and Abuse of Power
      • The Power of Information
      • Handling Power Relationships
      • Fostering Adult Behavior
      • The Distribution of Power
      • Power and Political Behavior
      • The Bureaucracy
      • Notes
• Part 7: Managing Change
  22. Structural Change
      • Leadership Problems
      • The Aging Organization
      • Notes
  23. The Change Process
      • Resistance to Change
      • Unfreezing
      • Planning the Change
      • Implementing the Change
      • Refreezing
      • Setting Goals
      • The Process Improvement Cycle
      • Notes
  24. Technical Assessment
      • Finding Problems
      • Looking Instead of Reacting
      • Self-Assessment
      • The Software Engineering Institute Assessments
      • Continuous Assesments
      • Improvement Results
      • Notes
• Part 8: Strategies for Managing Change
  25. Organizational Maturity
      • Urgency versus Importance
      • Organizational Improvement
      • The Origins of Capability Maturity Models
      • Maturity Levels
      • Industrial Adoption
      • What Is a CMM?
      • CMM Structure
      • Software Process Improvement
      • Why Maturity Models Work
      • Setting Improvement Priorities
      • Using CMMs
      • Notes
  26. The People-Development Strategy
      • Defining the Organization
      • The Management Team
      • Examining Yourself
      • Values
      • The People-Capability Maturity Model (P-CMM)
      • The Empowered Organization
      • Notes
  27. The Process-Improvement Strategy
      • Environmental Discipline
      • The Power of Process Management
      • The Need for Process Improvement
      • The Improvement Road Map
      • The Focus on Process Improvement
      • Making Improvements
      • Notes
  28. Building for the Future
      • Clarifying Goals
      • Defining the Mission
      • Visualizing Radical Change
      • The IBM Hardware Business
      • The Three Dimensions of Improvement
      • Setting Intermediate Goals
      • What Gets Tracked Gets Done
      • Just Do It
      • The Rewards of Leadership
      • Note

One of the first books that tries to address how to handle the IT staff.

It's decent, but nothing to read in one go. But reading it piecemeal, you may realize that you in fact may learn a lot in a very condensed space.